Relief that Rick Santorum's run has ended

Jeff Swensen/Getty ImagesSurrounded by members of his family, Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum announces he will be suspending his campaign during a press conference at the Gettysburg Hotel on April 10 in Gettysburg, Pa.

It is a relief that Rick Santorum has left the presidential race. The fact that he lasted this long is a scary reminder that our politics remain dangerously polarized. If a man like Santorum were to make it to the White House, the nation would finally have the culture war that conservatives like him seem so determined to provoke.

The intolerant brand of social conservatism that Santorum offered was not just a distraction from the nation’s pressing problems — it was offensive.

He would take the nation back to the Dark Ages in its treatment of homosexuals. His opposition to birth control is a position that even the vast majority of Catholics don’t buy.

And his charge that President Obama is somehow stifling religious freedom is so bizarre, it’s hard to believe it was sincere. More likely, it was an attempt to boost his own ambitions by fanning the flames of religious resentment.

If this man’s quixotic attempt to get the Republican Party nomination had succeeded, the polarization that is already crippling our politics would be put on steroids.

Remember, too, that Santorum’s views on the economy were extreme, as well. He presented himself as a middle-class guy from Pennsylvania, a contrast with the aristocratic Mitt Romney.

But that was phony.

Santorum has been trading on his political connections for years as an influence peddler, earning a salary that easily puts him into the top 1 percent.

And when you look at his economic policies, they reflect the same stubborn loyalty to this nation’s elite that we see in Romney’s platform. Both men want drastic tax cuts for the rich and ferocious spending reductions in programs that serve the middle class and the poor.

So, good riddance. It is encouraging that the Republican base rejected this guy and that he was unlikely to carry even his home state of Pennsylvania in the April 24 primary. Frankly, it’s a relief to see Santorum fade off into the sunset of obscurity, where he rightly belongs.